Dr. Achille Messac previously served as the Dean of Engineering for Howard University, as well as for Mississippi State University. Prior to his leadership roles at those institutions, Dr. Messac served as a senior member of the technical staff at Draper Laboratory where he contributed to work in critical areas of aerospace engineering, including work for the Space Shuttle and Space Station. Dr. Messac has also served on the Board as Faculty Senate President for Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, as Department Chair and professor at Syracuse University, as professor at Northeastern University, and has served on the Board of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics.
Dr. Messac received his BS, MS and PhD from MIT in aerospace engineering and is a Fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, The American Society of Mechanical Engineering, and The American Association for the Advancement of Science.